The Philippines will delay its decision on sugar importation until mid-2025, following the conclusion of the current crop year’s harvest, to first gain a clearer understanding of domestic supply, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said in a statement yesterday.
The decision was reached in a meeting led by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona at the Department of Agriculture office in Quezon City on Nov. 7.
Laurel said there is no immediate need for additional imports as domestic supply of both raw and refined sugar remains stable and sufficient to meet projected needs.
“Given the current situation, Administrator Azcona and I agreed that a decision on sugar importation could be delayed until after May, when the current harvest season ends,” he said.
“Our supply for both raw and refined sugar are stable and we are just beginning our harvest season, so Secretary Laurel and I agree that there will be no sugar imports until after harvest sometime in May or June,” Azcona explained.
Azcona said the current harvest season started slowly, with total cane volume reaching only a third of the amount harvested around the same period in the last crop year.
He attributed this to lower sugar content per ton of cane due to El Niño.
“Farmers had to delay their harvests to allow the cane to mature further and increase sugar content,” Azcona said.
The prolonged dry spells brought by El Niño resulted in the cane being physiologically immature, resulting in a 16 percent lower sugar content per ton of cane thus, constraining sugar output despite an increase in planting areas.
Per SRA data, the area planted to sugarcane this year increased slightly to 389,461 hectares, up from 388,378 hectares the previous crop year.
In Sugar Order No. 1, SRA has estimated this year’s sugar production at 1.782 million metric tons, a 7.2 percent drop from last year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts a 3.6 percent decline in Philippine raw sugar production for the current crop year, projecting that output will fall to 1.85 million metric tons from 1.92 million metric tons in the previous crop year.
The current crop year ends in August next year. ||
